Dilemma And Reconstruction

The Great World(1990)is one of David Malouf’s most influential novels that won him the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1991.Centering on the war,the novel unveils the life experiences of ordinary Australians spanning from the First World War to post-war epoch,fully picturing Australian society in the 20 th century under the cloud of war.The thesis delves into the dilemma of war memory of individuals,groups and the Australian society,and explores the possibility to alleviate such suffering.The protagonist attempts to remove the memory as the prisoner of war,but the fragmented and fractured memory gets him lost in the struggle of self-identity.Another prisoner who can envisage and acknowledge such memory succeeds to build a transcendent spiritual world,and attains harmony with his inner self and the external environment.The traumatic memory of the war is inscribed into the bodies and minds of soldiers,hindering them from returning to normal post-war life.The group in the novel offer the gift of forgiveness to relieve from war trauma,avert the plight of memory,and reconcile with the past.For modern Australian society,the heroic myth of war carries the memory of its past glory and the expectation of continuing the honor,laying the foundation of Australian national identity.By disintegrating the grand narrative of war,Malouf has questioned and deconstructed the backward-looking and narrowminded values.The employment of the memory of place-“The Great World”,namely the fairground in the prisoner-of-war camp,bears the author’s vision for the reconstruction of a more inclusive,open-minded and optimistic Australian national identity.Oriented at common people,The Great World illuminates the suffering and indelibility of traumatic memory of war.Neither denying or indulging in it would help the subjects of memory walk out of the dilemma.Only facing up to the past,choosing forgiveness,living in the moment and embracing openness constitute possible solutions to extricate individuals,groups and the entire Australian society from such predicament.